mick garner Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 I don't know about any of you but have you ever had some know-it-all come up to you at a show and tell you that gun is not correct for your vehicle? Our ferret is an early Mk 1 and served in hong-kong from 54' to 72', it is in sand and green and is done up basically how she would have looked in the late 50's, with a 303. Mk 2 bren on top, as far as I know, they used the bren into the early 60's, and then they re-chambered it to 7.62, but then you get some idiot walk up to you and say it needs a GPMG, and an old man come up to us and said it needed a 50.cal! A 30.cal maybe but certainly not a 50.cal. If you could send in some of your stories it would be appreciated. thanks, Mick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Hello Mick. Bloomin pleased you can make it and I hope the business is going well! Welcome aboard mate and thanks for the canvas..........it is doing just the job 8) Look forward to seeing some pictures of your MV's and please watch out for Berni - she likes to keep a tidy house :oops: Best wishes. jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyler Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Hi Mick, enjoy the site. Tyler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Pearson Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 I have a Saracen Mk 1, built 1952. It stayed in service until 1993 so has a number of minor modifications but was never uparmoured, the modifications being dipsticks etc and a C42 radio set, outside is exactly as built. At a show, someone comes up and says 'What is it?' fair enough, a Saracen he was told. He immediately says, 'that gun (303 bren) on the anti-aircraft mounting is wrong, it should be a Browning'. Very quickly, No 1 son answered 'how the hell do you know: 30 seconds ago you didn't even know what vehicle it was'. Seemed like a damn good answer from the offspring if you ask me. Another is 'Oh right, what have you got on yours?' which usually reduces Mr Know-it-all to mumbling 'well I don't actually have one myself but I saw a photograph/read a book/saw a TV programme' Can't count the number of people who have told me I have the wrong gun on my Valentine 'they all had two pounders you know.....' Yeah, yeah, see how good your gun recognition is after I have poked you in the eyes with a sharp stick!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Another is 'Oh right, what have you got on yours?' which usually reduces Mr Know-it-all to mumbling 'well I don't actually have one myself but I saw a photograph/read a book/saw a TV programme' John, Yes, we all get those people at some point. We were at Beltring a few years ago and a friend of mine had his International Halftrack there. A young chap was walking all around it and looking, eventually he came over to where we were all sitting (watching him!) and made several comments and remarks about "that is not right" and "they were never like that",etc. My friend asked if he had a Halftrack, as he knew so much about them, he replied, "oh yes, its at home in the cabinet". He was told to go forth and multiply :lol: Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fv1609 Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Ah but the boot can be on the other foot! Usually in the model tent at Beltring there is a model of a Hornet (FV1620) which has not only the jerrycans on each door as it should. But one on the top of each locker on each side. It never had both of these. :oops: It was once on one side then they fitted a larger exctractor cowl then the jerrycan got moved to the other side. The maker insists that it is all copied from authentic photographs. But one photo is a FVRDE prototype the other photograph of the other side is an in service vehicle. I then point out that the model is incorrect, I know because my model is parked in the garage. :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtistsRifles Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 Nice one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saracenstump Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 hi all, i took my saracen to an event and had the same sort of thing happen to me.a chap walked past shouting you shouldn't have that on it it should be this.he was refering to my bren gun on the anti aircraft ring,but before i could explain i haven't got a 1000 pound to pay for a gpmg or 7.62 lmg, he stormed off.this really angers me as these people don't usually have a vehicle but are quite willing to critasize without finding out the story first.but anyway my saracen was in service in the 50's to 70's so it once wore a .303 bren gun! most people are willing to chat and tell stories about our vehicles so this out weighs the others so i have alot of time for these people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fv1609 Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 Actually I don't mind people criticising. In fact I quite enjoy it, provided they say so politely to my face & not just storm off! I remember my grey prototype Shorland at a show, an old hand confessed he had been telling people to ignore it as it was clearly some homemade effort & shouldn't really be here. He was a bit surprised when I told him that it was the prototype for the first APC based on a Land Rover which I had restored without any modifications. I would dearly love people to come up at a show & question me about the authenticity of the attached pig. Because there are nearly 60 differences between this & a standard Army Mk1 pig. But nobody seems to notice or perhaps they are afraid I will blow my top because someone has questioned the restoration. BTW it is a FV1609 built genuinely in 1956, one of twenty prototypes. I believe is now the oldest pig in the world. Pigs are often stated in show programmes as 1953, 54 etc but that is only the chassis. All the production pigs were built in 1958-59 period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Pearson Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 On two different occassions, I have asked modellers (both models were immaculate by the way) why they had TWO drivers heads coming out of a Valentine model? Just because they have two harches don't mean it has two drivers! One modeller at Beltring last year criticised something about my tank and I said 'you had better get in the turret for a ride round the arena and see if you can see anything wrong inside as well'. Don't really know why I did it but the look on his face was worth it, in fact doubled when a second or two later he realised I was serious and he got the promised ride. I never had to lift another heavy thing or dig off some mud all week: any job needed doing, he was there. No further criticisms though! Makes up for someone who in 2004 asked me 'why don't you cut the canvas off and have a real tank?'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick garner Posted January 14, 2006 Author Share Posted January 14, 2006 Hi all, thanks for all the replies, seems we've all shared common experiences! But on the the flip side we have met some genuine ex-forces personnel who have told us about their experiences driving ferrets in northern ireland, aden etc. Mick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Bombini Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 Well, My stepbrother was trying to tell me the history of the CCKW when he first saw mine. He was saying that the military first had open cabs and later adopted closed cabs as they were easier to manufacture :oops:. I didn't try to tell him otherwise as he is a know-it-all and I didn't want to start some kind of family fued. He then went on to tell me that a T90 transmission is also correct for a MB or GPW and that I should toss my original T84 and put a T90 in my GPW. Again, I didn't want to argue with him about what was original and what was not so I just agreed with him about the T90 being original and told him I'm going to keep my T84 to save money. The thing about it is he is interested in our vehicles but just has the wrong info. Oh well, you can't change them all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Pearson Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 Hi all, thanks for all the replies, seems we've all shared common experiences! But on the the flip side we have met some genuine ex-forces personnel who have told us about their experiences driving ferrets in northern ireland, aden etc. Mick An experience that almost reduced me to tears was a woman in her 30's came up to me, very nervous and asked to see inside my Saracen, which of course I agreed. I noticed her Northern Irish accent and after a few minutes she explained she was from a Catholic part of Belfast and her childhood memories and nightmares were filled with the distinctive whine of the Saracen's transmission, almost like it was something out of a horror story, as in fact it was for a six year old child. She calmed down and was able to recognise that the soldiers were probably half of her current age and they were frightened as well by being there. When she got out she thanked me for laying some particularly persistant ghosts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirhc Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Along this note when we owned a Humber Pig we took it to a show. This ex soldier came over and spent ages looking at it. We said he could get in if he wanted, but he kept refusing. Turns out last time he was in one it got set on fire on the streets of Northern Ireland and he didn't want to be reminded of it. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fv1609 Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Another pig experience. Man comes up & stares at pig & smiles. Man: "I've spent many an uncomfortable ride in the back of one of these things" Me: "Oh well. what unit did you serve with?" Man (no longer smilling): "No the b*stards used to drive round the block & beat us up in the back!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlienFTM Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 I don't know about any of you but have you ever had some know-it-all come up to you at a show and tell you that gun is not correct for your vehicle? Our ferret is an early Mk 1 and served in hong-kong from 54' to 72', it is in sand and green and is done up basically how she would have looked in the late 50's, with a 303. Mk 2 bren on top, as far as I know, they used the bren into the early 60's, and then they re-chambered it to 7.62, but then you get some idiot walk up to you and say it needs a GPMG, and an old man come up to us and said it needed a 50.cal! A 30.cal maybe but certainly not a 50.cal. If you could send in some of your stories it would be appreciated. thanks, Mick. We had the following Mark 1s during my time in 15/19H: 1976 - 77, Tidworth: B Sqn SSM 1976 - 77, Cyprus Sovereign Bases: C Sqn SSM 1976 - 77, Nicosia: Force Reserve Sqn SSM 1977 - 82 (at least): Command Troop: RSM LO 2 * Rebroadcast B & C Sqns: 1 * SSM each All of these Mark 1s had .30" Brownings. However, that said, I was very well aware at the time that historically the Bren was more usually fitted to Mark 1s. Points: I can only remember once for certain in seven tears ANY of these Ferrets actually carried the MG fitted, one day on a range at Hohne, when I learned the very valuable lesson that the .30" Browning mounted on the back of a MK 1 FSC is less than ideal as it sprayed rounds all over the range as the whole vehicle shook. I'd posit that the Bren WAS a better weapon to fit. The .30" (pronounced Three-Oh in the UK - irrespective of what any Walter Mitty who wasn't there or American might tell you) was a bitch to keep clean and during the Cold War it was simply too much effort to mount the MG, dismount it, strip, clean and reassemble it to keep the rust at bay. Our Mark 2s in Cyprus carried their Brownings pretty much permanently because we were on ops. The 30s were still bitches to clean, even in the dry heat of Cyprus. If any of our Mk 1s had a 30 mounted and not actually being fired (and as I said I cannot remember it happening), it would have been wrapped up tighter than a fish's bum to keep it dry. HTH ;o) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.